


And the Whiskey Goes Down

by Kainka



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Drinking, Drunk Tony, F/M, Fighting, M/M, Partying, Post-Iron Man 3, Post-Thor: The Dark World, Shapeshifter Loki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-06-10 03:09:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6937213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kainka/pseuds/Kainka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is not having the best time and on top of all his problems Pepper broke up with him. It is not surprising that he tries to drown himself in alcohol and never-ending partying. </p>
<p>Loki, on the other hand, has all he wanted. Or does he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. All rights are reserved to Marvel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you dianemaryallison for being my beta ;)

New York. Stark Tower. Falling. Chitauri. Space. Fall. Darkness. He returned to Earth. He remembered it. Or did he? If he had come back, why was everything so dark? He closed his eyes and opened them again but it made no difference.

_No, please no!_

He screamed but no sound came out of his mouth. There was no light. There was no sound. There was nothing. Only the darkness. It surrounded him. It wrapped its invisible limbs around him, as if it was alive, choking him. He wanted to fight, to run, to save himself. But there was no enemy to face just as there was nowhere to go. His death was inescapable. There was nothing he could do about it.

Tony’s eyes shot open only to be hurt by the bright light and he closed them immediately. His breath was heavy and his heart pounding, yet he was glad for all that. These were all signs of being alive. It was only a dream. A nightmare.

His mouth was dry, his tongue felt rough and heavy. He had to blink a few times before his eyes could adjust to the light. It must have been late morning, if not noon. However, to his delight, he found that he was in his own bed, in his very own villa. This was quite surprising for him. Usually he would either be in a bed of some hotel with another woman, or if he was in his own house, it would be somewhere on the floor, maybe in the bathroom.

 _Well, at least some good news_ , he thought, trying to ignore the pounding pain in his head that screamed: hangover. _What happened?_ Tony asked himself but regretted it immediately. The reason why he threw a party last night and why he drank so much he would forget everything came back to him now. He moaned and turned to the other side, wishing he had not remembered. It was only then when he realised he was not alone.

* * *

 

Tony Stark’s house was shaking with the loud beats of music. It was filled with people; all of them dancing, chatting, gaming, drinking and some were already throwing up. They were out of the city, on a beach an hour from Malibu, in one of his huge, expensive villas that had not seen a party like this for quite a long time. At least not since before he was still with— He did not want to think about her. All he wanted to do was drink, pretend he was having fun partying, and forget it all. At least for tonight.

“Shot!” someone yelled and everyone around Tony, including him of course, licked the salt of their hands and downed the shot. _This tequila was not the worst_ , he thought putting down the glass and bitting into the lime. He would prefer to drink it without all this salt-and-lime theatrics, but right now he did not care. It was one of the cheaper drinks he had, although that still meant it would be pretty expensive for an average human being, but since everyone here seemed to like it, he decided to go with the flow without thinking twice about it. That was what he needed right now. To stop thinking and just live in the moment. He kept convincing himself that that was what he was doing but deep down he knew it was a pathetic lie. A lie he desperately needed.

“Tony, come dance with us!” about six girls called in unison with sweet but drunk voices.

“Of course ladies,” replied the playboy loudly, starting to move towards them.

The women around, so far occupied by seducing the rich men, turned their attention to the scene and were instantly drawn closer to them. He found it repulsive, but not enough to stop him.

“It wouldn’t be a good dance without my suit!” he continued.

Now he had attention from all the men and women around and they all gasped in astonishment as the parts of his suit appeared seemingly out of nowhere. In a few seconds, he was dressed as Iron Man, keeping only his head free. The music escalated and the cheers intensified. He grinned, made his way to the overly excited girls that first called for him and joined them on the dance floor. The truth was, Tony never thought himself to be a good dancer and it seemed much easier in armor. He did not need to care about any dance moves or keeping the balance. He just shifted the weight from one foot to the other with his hands above his head. He would also avoid feeling the sweat of other people’s bodies as they were bumping into him.

Every time he noticed a girl getting closer, he made a couple steps to the side, making it look as part of his ‘dancing’. All of them were definitely good looking, the brunette in the sleeveless, burgundy dress was especially hot, and Tony did notice it, but felt as if he needed to keep his distance. Not just from these girls but from women in general. The brunette seemed pretty confident about herself and danced her way to his side. He turned his back to her acting oblivious to her attempts of getting his attention, but again she found her way around. Tony gave her a second look and told himself she was not that hot. Suddenly he got annoyed and abandoned the dance floor for a drink.

He got one with a group of people he thought he recognised from somewhere but had no idea who they actually were. Jarvis would know, that was all Tony needed. He let himself get taken by the flow and ended up at the bar. He was about to ask for a drink when one of his drunken guests bumped into him.

“Sorry dude,” the man said loudly and it took him a second to recognise that he was talking to Tony Stark. “Oh it’s you Mr. Stark!” Tony rewarded him with a contemptuous sneer and showed him his back.

“Mr. Stark,” the man acted as if he did not notice anything, which given his drunken state, he probably did not and Tony was forced to turn back to him with annoyance. “You’re the hero we needed!” man continued and others joined him surrounding Tony. They challenged him to save a girl in need while someone already handed him the bottle that the bartender could not open and Tony accepted the challenge without a second thought.

The billionaire realised he was more drunk than he originally thought, when he used more strength than needed and crushed the bottle, causing a great burst of laughter around. Trying to hide his embarrassment, he asked for a new bottle frowning. He wanted to try again but got a seemingly better idea. He placed the bottle on the bar and reached out his hand, waiting. People around fell silent in expectation. He made sure all the looks were on him as he blasted the upper part of the bottle. The crowd fell silent for an instant, then exploded watching the liquor pouring out. Tony grabbed the remaining half of the bottle, filled his glass and downed it in one gulp, earning cheers and excited screams. After that he had to do it a few more times for everyone’s great entertainment. He was encouraged to drink from every bottle he opened, not that he needed much persuasion.

He was just about to open the sixth bottle when he heard a loud thump, as something heavy landed in the middle of the room, followed by panicked screams. Something grabbed him so suddenly he did not even have time to register what was going on. His first instinct was to call for his helmet before trying to see who the attacker was.

It all happened in seconds. One moment he was drinking at the bar, the next he was being dragged outside by none other than the War Machine. Although Tony recovered from the surprise quite quickly, they were already in the air, high above his house, when he managed to free himself from Rhodey’s grip. His helmet finally reached him then and attached itself to the suit. They were now truly facing each other as the Iron Man and the War Machine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I'm not sure where this story will go so I rated it M for now. Thank you for reading and any feedback is welcomed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to my beta AndThatsShannii for always helping me :)

“Tony, what are you doing?” asked Rhodey. 

“Um, having a party, I’d say,” Tony replied, smirking. As he said it he realised the music had stopped. He looked down to see confused people gathering outside. It amused him, as always, how small and insignificant they looked, but other than that he payed them no attention. 

“Yes, as you were for the past four nights,” continued Rhodey. “What happened to you?” he asked, actually sounding concerned. 

“Nothing. Can’t you see I’m having fun?” he tried to sound as convincing as possible. 

“I know you. Something must have happened or you would not be acting so reckless. Fooling around in your suit only to entertain drunk people on your parties, drinking yourself into a stupor…that’s not you.”

The billionaire laughed. “That, my friend, sounds very much like me.” Everyone knew that was exactly like him, especially Rhodey. He was even expecting him to show up sooner. He tried to stop Tony’s parties before, so what was his point now? “Look, I’m sorry for not inviting you, but you know, you can be quite a killjoy.” He did not reply and the silence was slowly getting awkward. “Anyway… feel free to join the party if you want. If not, leave,” he said and turned to get back down, but was stopped. 

“Come on, Tony,” said Rhodey, grabbing his shoulder. “This isn’t good for your image as the Iron Man. No one will take you seriously if they see you like this. Don’t ruin your reputation so easily,” he said sounding sincerely worried. Tony jerked his arm free and tried to get away before he would get pissed of, but Rhodey flew around to face him. 

“I can’t let you do this,” said the War Machine seriously. 

“Do what? Tony asked irritated. His friend's voice suddenly lacked all the previous concern and he did not like it. Was he just acting it?

“Ruin everything,” he replied and made a pause. “Ruin the Iron Man.” 

“What?”

“Don’t you see it? You’re not just the rich playboy anymore. People see you as their superhero. They trust you with their lives. What do you think will happen to that image if they keep seeing you like this? You’re supposed to represent the Avengers and the Shield!” 

“Oh, so that’s what you really care about.” Tony was getting angry. He understood now. Rhodey came here only because someone from the Shield told him to. “You don’t give a shit about me!” he continued with his voice getting louder. “If it was up to you, you wouldn’t even come here, now would you? Who sent you here?” 

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me!” Tony yelled back at him as he raised his right arm, taking up a fighting position. 

“I didn’t come here to fight you. Just take off the suit and stop all this nonsense.” Rhodey replied, preparing for fight too. 

“I’m afraid I don’t want to do that,” said Tony while turning his back to Rhodey, “so go before someone gets hurt.” 

Tony knew that the War Machine would try to stop him by all means, so he was a little surprised when he was able to escape Rhodey’s grasp and fly a few meters away.

He pushed into him, diverting him from his previous course towards the party. Tony pushed back. They both flew several meters to the side before the War Machine was able to compensate the power and push back. For a moment they were stuck until they both separated. They were hovering in the air, facing each other, ready to attack. 

“Stop it Tony. This is ridiculous!” 

“You stop it.” Tony knew he sounded childish but did not care. “I’m sick of you, Shield or anyone else telling me what to do. I don’t care…” he did not get to finish his sentence; Rhodey shot him in the chest. All Tony’s drinking had slowed his reaction times, and he was unable to dodge the attack. With a pained grunt, he fell out of the air and plummeted to the beach. 

The fight became more physical, as the War Machine followed him to the ground and punched him in the face. Although the party guests could no longer see the action, they could hear the connection of metal, as the men punched and kicked each other violently. Finally, Rhodey had the upper hand, as he pinned Tony down against the sand with a triumphant look.

“Had enough?” asked Rhodey confident about his victory. “Look at you,” he said hitting him again. Iron Man lay on the ground, being buried deeper into the sand by every punch he received. “You’re so drunk, you can’t even fight me,” his opponent continued angrily.

What am I doing? Tony asked himself. How did this happen? 

Part of him was aware of of being hit repeatedly, yet somehow, he felt as if it was someone else, not him, lying there apathetically. Even the voice of Jarvis, duteously reporting the level of the damage, sounded like something coming from far away, something that had nothing to do with him. The notion of falling into the abyss of nothingness took over him, leaving him empty, numb inside. This strange loss of sensation was oddly comforting. Shutting down his feelings, that was what he wanted, wasn’t it? He might have given in if he had not heard what Rhodey said next. 

“You don’t deserve to be the Iron Man. You’re PATHETIC!”

Those last words resonated in his mind. They were like a cold shower, mercilessly dragging him back to reality. He caught the hand of his opponent, stopping the coming blow. Tony could sense Rhodey’s surprise as he slowly got back to his feet. Quickly thinking of the strategy he gave Jarvis orders how to make up for all the damage and energy loss. He fired at the confused War Machine. Not only was it bad enough he got hit from such a small distance, he also did not know about the adjustments Tony made recently to increase its destructive effect. It worked well. Rhodey was pushed several meters back, hitting the ground and the damage on his suit was more than severe. 

Tony did not give him time to recover. In a moment he was standing atop of him. Their roles changed now, but this time a simple punching was not enough. Not for Tony. Not after what Rhodey said. 

He designed both of their suits, he knew them better than anyone and he also knew their weaknesses.He pulled at his helmet and felt the joints give away, revealing Rhodey’s alarmed but not yet defeated expression. That only fueled Tony’s anger. He wanted to crush him. To wipe that look off his face. And yet he did not want to hurt him too badly. He could have easily killed him in that moment. Rhodey was at his mercy and they both knew it. Instead of aiming at his unprotected head, Tony directed his strike towards War Machine’s arc reactor and when it made a deafening crunch he stood up. 

“You would be nothing without me.” He shouted at him. Then his voice got low and threatening as he looked down on Rhodey’s disabled armour. 

“I am the Iron Man. Don’t you ever forget that.” 

“Oh, and don’t worry, the damage is easily fixed,” he said over his shoulder returning to his casual tone, “…this time”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the second chapter. If you're wondering where's Loki, I promise he'll come soon ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, I'm sorry that this chapter took me so long. I hope you will enjoy it anyway ;)

His house seemed too quite, as he flew closer, and for a moment he thought Rhodey had been successful at ruining his party after all, but he was not. Despite the music playing no longer only a few had left. All his guests gathered outside awaiting him anxiously. Tony knew it was not because they cared about him, but simply because they wanted to see something exciting. They wanted to have a story to tell, to take pictures of their celebrity and Tony was pretty sure they would want the party to continue as well.

He landed carefully in front of the crowd trying to show as little as possible of the damage on his armour.

“I apologise for this disruption, my friends,” Tony started putting on a big smile as the cameras flashed. “It was only a gatecrasher and well… I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we don’t want those here,” he paused for a second, “or do we?”

There was a moment of silence giving Tony doubts whether he managed to save the situation however they disappeared quickly when some older man with funny beard yelled: No we don’t! Others joined in and soon nobody remained silent. Tony could hear people shout things like 'This was a private party' or 'We were having fun'!

“Exactly,” Tony smirked raising a hand to silence everyone. “That’s why it’s time for… an AFTER PARTY!” He gave them time to react before he continued. Some were shouting more loudly than others but all of his guests cheered for it. “After party at pool starts now!”

He thought moving the party outside would make it easier to empty the house and eventually end the party. The only reason why he did not end it right now was simply because he could not give Rhodey that satisfaction.

Billionaire himself decided to head inside instead of following others to the pool as a desperate need to get out of his metal body took over him. He was not sure whether it was an echo of something that Rhodey said or not but somehow he felt uncomfortable in his iron suit. The thought of feeling that way about wearing his own armour scared him, armour that usually was and should have been like his second skin. Tony tried to convince himself that he had more rational reasons for wanting to take it off. After all, it was covered in ugly scratches and running on its contingency energy reserves.

Halfway towards the villa he glimpsed a woman walking with the crowd and something about her caught his attention instantly but he could not quite put his finger on what exactly it was. It was much more than her looks, he was sure. He could only see her for seconds anyway, if someone asked him what she was wearing, he could not say. If someone told him to describe her features, he would not be able to do that either and yet, when their eyes met, although only for a brief moment, Tony’s world seemed to slow down as if everything centered around her. Then she was gone. Just like that, he lost sight of her in a blink of an eye. The flow of people had swallowed her and taken away.

All he had time to notice was her black hair, pale skin and, of course, the fact that she was very attractive, but it was not the only factor that triggered his curiosity. She seemed familiar even though Tony did not think he ever saw her before. _Who was she?_ he wondered, unsuccessfully trying to search his memory for her face.

_Stop_ , he shook his head realising he was still standing at the same spot.

He should not think about any woman tonight. He promised himself he would not do it for a reason. It would only remind him of Pepper and this evening was about trying to get her out of his mind, not the other way. He let it go thinking she was probably just someone he flirted with on one of the previous parties.

Tony got inside at last, finding the house empty expect for the DJ and his friend who were moving the equipment to the afterparty.

“Need some help with that?” he asked them. Johnny was a fine guy, always ready to help with his parties and his friend looked like his skinny legs would break under the weight any time.

“Don’t worry ‘bout us,” DJ answered. “Mikey here needs to learn more about DJ-ing and all this heavy lifting comes with the job,” he added with a smirk. The look the boy gave Johnny after that almost managed to make Tony smile.

“Well, don’t spare him then,” Tony said and continued towards the stairs. “And tell Jarvis when you’re done to close it here,” he shouted over his shoulder. “I want the party to stay outside from now on.”

“Sure thing,” he heard DJ shout back as he slowly climbed the stairs.

Out of the sight he took off his suit. The hope of feeling better after freeing himself from his metal body proved to be false.

Tony slammed the door of his room behind him, venting at least this way. However, one look in the mirror was all that was needed to make his anger disappear. He looked awful. Scratches covered his whole body and bruises would appear soon. Mirror Tony that kept staring back at him did not look like the famous Iron Man at all. He barely looked like a pale imitation of Tony Stark. He hated seeing himself how he was.

A memory of Rhodeys’s voice pushed itself to the surface. _You’re pathetic!_ He broke the eye contact with Mirror Tony, he needed to find a bottle. It was somewhere in his room, Tony always kept one there. This time he found it in his wardrobe.

The words filled his mind and he tried to quite them with pressing his lips to the bottle. The whiskey burned its way down his throat as he sat on the floor leaning his back against the wall.

He could not stop the voice in his head. He took another gulp of the liquor but the words kept buzzing in his mind like an annoying, tireless wasp. He tried to wave it off but it kept on returning.

_Pathetic!_

He poured more whiskey down his throat.

_Pathetic!_

It was hard to breath, his own thoughts were suffocating him. All of a sudden, something distracted him. For a split second he thought he saw a movement in the mirror but it was only his mind playing tricks on him. There was no one there, he was alone.

_I am alone_ , Tony realised. Avengers were not there for him. Bruce was not there for him and he could not even be angry at him for it. And Rhodey… His friends had left him. Pepper had also left him. Pepper, who was always able to tolerate his bad habits, who fell in love with him despite seeing him at his worst, could not take it anymore. He had no one and it was all his fault. He pushed them away.

Tony fastened his grip on the whiskey. He pressed his lips to bottleneck. Alcohol was not a good solution to his problem, he was aware of it. Pepper told him many times. Others told him as well, and yet it was the only one he had.

When the alcohol rose to his head and the burning sensation in his throat was satisfying enough, he lowered the bottle. Before it touched the floor by his side, it slipped his hand and fell, the precious liquid spilling all over the floor and his trousers. At the same time he registered a movement in the corner of his eye just like before with the mirror.

“Jarvis, is anyone here?”

“No sir, I don’t believe so, but I can scan the room for some hidden presence if you would like.”

Tony considered the offer but dismissed it in the end, he might have been more drunk than he realised.

“Maybe it is a sign that you should stop drinking,” replied Jarvis.

“I didn’t think you would believe in signs,” Tony scoffed. “I don’t, but I thought maybe I could convince you to do so for now, sir.”

“Nice try,” Tony replied appreciating Jarvis’ attempt, “but I don’t think I believe in signs either.”

“In that case, can I just remind you that the party outside is still going on,” Jarvis said after a while. “Or would you like me to call it off?”

_Oh yes, the party!_  He almost forgot. There was an afterparty at his pool and he was sitting here depressed, drinking by himself. He should go out there, drink with people whose names he would never know, dance with some girls and be too drunk to care. It was superficial but he doubted it worse than what he was doing.

“No,” he said to his A.I., “I feel like it’s time for me to join my guests.”

He got up to find some clean clothes with his head spinning slightly. He was going to have fun and no one in this whole world could stop him from doing that. No woman, no best friend, no stupid corrupted organization, no one was going to control how he felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should note that this chapter has not been betaed, so please if you noticed any mistakes let me know and I will fix them. Thank you and have a good day (or night, depending on when you're reading this) ;)


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